My own voyages into the world of Solo RPGs.

Stat It: The Fan-Voted Quarter Quell

Alright, let’s begin this fan-voted Quarter Quell. To recap, our RPG of choice is Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. I picked this over Heroine because of there being a resurgence of Superhero stuff. Films, TV series, even comic books are getting more attention nowadays. I also picked it because of a personal reason:

It’s the first roleplaying game I played with others. To make a long story short, I was new to my city and had just got started exploring the downtown area. There, I spotted a Friendly Local Gaming Store that had been going strong for a while. They were advertizing a four hour game demo session and I decided to go.

It was an unforgettable experience, since, as stated before, it was my first RPG that I played with other people. Other RPGs I played, I played solo, only to understand the rules and have a bit of fun along the way. The RPG we played was Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and I instantly fell in love with the system. And thus, that’s what we’ll be playing today.

But we’re going to need some characters for this. This is where I’ll go in a different direction than usual. I’m gonna play three characters.

One premade

One randomly generated

And one custom made

This ensures all my bases are covered. Let’s get the easy ones out of the way first. For our premade, we’ll select Spiderman. The reasoning is a bit obvious. Spiderman is a pretty good character to play, since everyone knows how he works: web swinger who has a great power that requires great responsibility, lives a normal life while having powers, and usually has a love interest that either is thrown off a bridge or get traded away to the Devil. Either way, life sucks as Parker, but he keeps on trucking as Spidey.

Plus, he’s been used before in the Solo game that I put a spotlight on, so he works. Next up, I’m gonna randomly generate a character. First, rolling up origins.

[Roll: 3]

So that results in an Altered Human with one power set. I have a power trait at D8 along with an additional Expert Specialty.

[Roll: 4]

My affiliations are as follows: Buddy D10, Team D8, Solo D6.

[Roll: 9]

For my power set, I have two at D10, and three at D8 (I have an extra one from Altered Human). So now I’m gonna roll up my powers.

Okay, I have a pretty standard array of powers. Now to pick SFX and a limit. I’ll pick Unleashed and Constructs for my SFX, and Uncontrollable for my limit. Rolling up some specialties next.

[Roll: 7]

So I gain four Expert Specialties. One of them will be Psychic.

[Rolling…

4 = Crime, 1 = Acrobatic, 1 6= Menace]

So, already I get the impression this is a circus performer (menace could mean stuff like this) that had a bad run in with Stan Lee’s Signature Green Slime and gained Psychic powers as a result and possibly has seen a case of money laundering with the ring master. With that in mind, I’ll roll my Distinctions to see what I get.

[Roll: 3, 6, 2]

So a backstory, outlook, and a profession. Obviously, her profession is Circus Performer. Her backstory could be something akin to… Hm… Child Runaway. Her outlook will most definitely be then, Dog Eat Dog. Next, I’ll roll some Milestones up.

[Roll: 1 and 2]

Both of them are about affiliation. I’ll focus on her backstory of being a child runaway first.

Her first Milestone is “Like A Family”. She gains one XP for every time she considers someone to be like an older brother/sister/father/mother to her. She gains three for if she takes physical stress because of the direct actions of her team, and finally, ten for deciding whether she wants to have her confess that they’re like a family to her or decide to run away from the team.

Her second Milestone will reflect on her trust issues. I doubt she’ll have good faith in people after experiencing the dirty dealings of the circus folk. So “Trust Issues” it is. She gets one XP for every time she finds reason to mistrust someone in her team, three for when she takes mental or emotional stress due to the direct actions of her team, and 10 XP if she decides to fully trust them, or backstab them when she has the chance.

And that’s my Circus Performer character. Serikus sounds good of a name. Now we get to the nitty gritty part. Making a character from scratch. My original idea is a character who is basically the answer of “What if the Sentinels from X-Men were a suit made by Stark Industries”… if they didn’t beat me to the punch. And so, I’ll just make a character wholesale.

My character is going to be a trained magician. I figure my affiliation is going to be Solo D10, Buddy D8, Team D6. My powers are as follows:

Sorcery ranked at D10

Transmutation ranked at D10

Senses ranked at D8

Teleport ranked at D8

My SFX and Limit of choice will be Healing and Growing Dread. For talents, I’ve picked Mystic at D10, and Cosmic at D8. Now for the distinctions. I’ve chosen Smug Magician, “Wanna See A Trick?”, and One Last Hope. For Milestones, I’m gonna say that the two will have to do with both his powers and his job as a therapist.

The first Milestone is called Unknown Magic. 1 XP is gained when he first induces stress using his Sorcery Power Trait, 3 XP is gained when he finds out something dark and mysterious about his magic, and 10 XP is gained when he decides to either abandon his power or embrace it.

The second Milestone is called “The Closest Thing to a Therapist”. 1 XP is gained when he heals stress either due to his magic or his Psyche Expertise, 3 XP is gained when puts someone’s emotions above fighting, and 10 XP is gained when he chooses helping someone get over their pain or leaving them to despair.

And that’s it. Those are my characters made for the game. Coming soon, the start of our Fan-Voted Quarter Quell.